A Raman spectroscopy based optical fibre system for detecting carbonation profile of cementitious materials

•A bespoke Raman spectroscopy based optical fibre platform capable of detecting the carbonation of cementitious materials has been established.•The calcium carbonate and its profile have been successfully detected by this optical fibre Raman system.•The study shows a potential for developing a Raman spectroscopy based optical fibre system for monitoring the chemistry and durability of concrete. Sensors demonstrate huge potential in civil engineering for monitoring the health condition and performance of concrete structures. Amongst various chemical deterioration mechanisms causing inadequate durability of concrete structures, carbonation is one of the most severe mechanisms. It occurs from the chemical reactions between intruded CO2 and calcium-bearing phases, hence is accompanied by the formation of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and the decrease of the alkalinity of concrete pore solution, causing corrosion of rebar in concrete. Thus, detecting carbonation process, especially, determining the carbonation profile (i.e. the content of carbonation products formed against the depth into concrete structure), is of great importance to the diagnosis of the health condition of concrete structures and the prediction of service life. Unfortunately, existing sensors for health monitoring systems suffer from various limitations. Optical fibre Raman technology offers a unique opportunity for developing a novel chemical sensor system capable of monitoring the service-condition of concrete in situ. In the current work, a bespoke ‘coaxial’ optical fibre sensing platform based on Raman spectroscopy was successfully established with a 514.5nm laser. All the optics were tailored for efficiently exciting and receiving signals from cementitious materials, and their diameters were restricted within 0.5in. in order to explore the feasibility of developing an embeddable miniature sensor system in the future. This sensing system was then employed to detect the carbonation mechanism of a plain Portland cement (PC) paste. The calcium carbonate polymorphs as well as the carbonation profile in the PC paste was successfully recognised and established with the results being verified favourably by bench-mounted Raman, X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Thermogravimetry (TG) analyses. Our results demonstrate a good potential for developing a novel Raman spectroscopy based optical fibre sensor system for monitoring the health condition and the performance of concrete structures in future.